Looks like PvZ 2 is up on the New Zealand app store. Typically, this means we'll see a release here tonight around 11pm EST. It's possible that it's a limited roll out to a few regions as a test first, though.

EDIT: Seeing more reports, this may be just a "soft launch" meaning its being tested in limited countries.

Downloaded from the NZ store. Good, but not really grabbing me. Burnt out on the first one I guess. You don't need to buy anything, but I would rather just pay money for the game and unlock stuff as I go, although there is a lot of stuff to unlock without spending money. The challenges to get extra stars are pretty challenging. The coins to buy powers thing just seems silly and tacked on though. While its good, it just feels like a big money grab.

Doesn't seem like it. Seed slots so far is limited to 5 slots and seems way to small, so it's hard to get too imaginative with your layouts so far. Which I have to say I really do not like, but there is a much smaller group of plants to pick from anyway (at least so far). I know you can buy more slots for real money, but I am hoping you can also unlock them in the game, but I don't know if that is possible or not yet.

This game reminds me of Flight Control. It was a nice simple game, but well done and incredibly addicting. EA bought Fire Mint and made FC2, trying to make it much more complicated and get you to buy IAP. While number 2 wasn't bad, it certainly missed the magic of the first one. The same goes for PvZ2 for me. It doesn't have the magic of the first game, but as I said, that may because I am burnt out on it.